Product data exchange

Gain a competitive advantage

With increasing competition, your organization needs to push the limits of new product development — reducing costs, driving innovation, minimizing design cycles, and improving product quality — while bringing products to market faster than ever. To achieve these goals, you need to find better ways to communicate and collaborate across dispersed project teams and with remote suppliers, offshore production facilities, and customers worldwide. Adobe software can help your organization collaborate and exchange critical, yet sensitive, 2D and 3D data across your entire value chain more securely and cost-effectively.

Adobe and partner software can be used to publish, protect, review, and archive product data as part of these and other product lifecycle management (PLM) workflows:

3D model-based definition (3D MBD)

Publish rich, interactive 3D PDF files — complete with product manufacturing information (PMI) — to preconfigured PDF form templates created with the Adobe® LiveCycle® Forms ES2 module. Combine 3D information with parts lists and information stored in other business systems to create an authoritative, single-source, master product definition that doesn't include traditional 2D drawings. Publish to 3D PDF and manage downstream distribution of the 3D MBD data set to suppliers globally, while protecting your valuable product data wherever it goes with the Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management ES2 module.

Item master creation

Create complete part master records combining 2D, 3D, and other pertinent information into single PDF files or PDF Portfolios. Pull information from multiple systems, including PDM and ERP systems, and populate preconfigured PDF templates created in Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES2. Publish, protect, review, and archive item masters in the PDF format as a long-term record of the as-designed product.

First article inspection (FAI) reports

Replace traditional, paper-based processes for receiving first article inspection reports by combining 3D PDF with preconfigured PDF form templates. Allow suppliers to submit FAI reports electronically using interactive forms to submit measurement data and variant information with LiveCycle Forms ES2. Accept digital signatures as part of automated workflows integrated with ERP/MRP systems with the Adobe LiveCycle Digital Signatures ES2 module. Archive FAI reports in the ISO standard PDF/E format.

Engineering change orders (ECOs)

Enable participation in the ECO process with stakeholders outside the product data management (PDM) system with 3D PDF. Allow suppliers, customers, and other nonengineering participants to collaborate on, review, comment, and approve ECOs as part of automated workflows — all from within familiar, free Adobe Reader® software. Initiate and manage the review process using Adobe Acrobat® X Pro software on the desktop or with the Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions ES2 module in PDM-driven, server-based workflows. Using LiveCycle Rights Management ES2, control access to released engineering data and revoke access to old revisions whenever a new revision occurs.

RFPs/RFQs

Create rich information packages for requests for quotes, proposals, or contracts. Leverage rich data already available in your ERP, PDM, and other business systems. Enable suppliers to review and interact with your data using Adobe Reader, which is already installed on most computers. Suppliers can save files locally and then digitally sign and submit them. In the meantime, you can monitor the status of files and track supplier responses. Once a bidding process is complete, you can expire documents using LiveCycle Rights Management ES2, so only the winning vendor can access sensitive information.

For more in-depth information

• Adobe LiveCycle ES2
• Adobe Acrobat X Pro
• Adobe Connect™